THE DIFFERENCE IN COWS

Otago Witness, Issue 3293, 25 April 1917, Page 12

THE DIFFERENCE IN COWS

Tho question as to whether the percentage of butter-fat in any certain cow’s .milk can ho increased by changing or increasing her feed seems about as hard to settle as the much-debated one of whether the real mother of the chick is the hen which hatches it (writes N. S. French in Hoard's Dairyman). Artificial hatching and brooding have apparently left a great many chickens entirely motherless; while tho invention and use of tho Babcock tost has thrown much light in the long, dark corners of feed and breed problems; but whenever a person begins to get interested in dairy matter's, this butter-fat problem is generally one of the first to keep him awake nights. Many of the experiment stations conducted long and careful tests, and all are practically agreed in answering this query m the negative, and all practical dairymen now agree that, _ while the quantity of milk having a uniform percentage of fat _ can be _ very materially increased by ‘udiciously increasing the feed ration, the fat percentage of any cow’s milk remains practically the same through her life, being, m fact, an inborn trait of the individual, and largely inherited from ancestors both near and remote; hence tho great value of registration papers, which show in a concise manner just what any or all of the ancestors of any individual nave been doing in past years. So strong is this belief in the inheritance of this most desirable trait in the dairy cow that fairly fabulous prices are often paid for certain individuals, tho ancestors of which have been noted producers in tho not very distant past. Still, there seem to be a few things about the dairy cow not yet fully understood. Why is it that two cows may stand side by side and eat practically the same feeds in .nearly the same amounts, one giving milk that tests 8 per cent, of fat or more, while the other cow’s milk may test less_ than 2 per cent.? . No answer ever having been found to that mystery, it has lately become more and more the habit, or fad, no matter what you call it, to consider this an inherited trait, and no one has as yet been able successfully to disprove this idea. Inherited from whom? From dam or "sire, or from all the other dams and sires since tho first pair stepped out of tho Ark to pluck the green verdure of Ararat after tho wettest spell of weather of which there is any record? Here is a problem which is surely large enough for all breeders af dairy stock to work at. The beginner in tho breed business is very apt to think that any heifer calf from an extra good cow should bo as good as her mother; but under ordinary conditions they very rarely are; hence many of the oldest and most experienced breeders are strong in tho belief that certain traits—especially this of milk-richness —are inherited by the male calves, and through them to be transmitted to their female calves; therefore, whenever some cow breaks what has hitherto been the world’s record, bids are often sent in for any of her bull calves in figures that would make the price of any ordinary calf look like the infinitesimal part of 30 cents. And strange as it may appear to many, some of those same bulls are advertised for service at figures- greater than the average dairyman would dare to pay for a full-grown cow; and this, mind you, simply to ensure the birth of a calf. Is the sire more important than the dam? These breeders—scores, perhaps hundreds, of them —appear to think so, while there are others who, by actions that speak far louder than words, seem to think that any kind of a “ critter ” that will make his cows become pregnant is all that is required. Perhaps it is, if the calves are to bo condemned to death before they are born, as is far too often the case in many so-called dairy countries. But is this consoiwation. that big word lately so often printed in papers that bemoan the high cost of living? Certainly not. A true dairyman should also be a breeder, and by all means raise the heifer calves from his best cows. And to give these best cows an oven show they should bo bred to a bull at least as good as they arc.